this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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Steam keeps on winning (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 10 months ago by Carighan@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
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From the opinion piece:

Last year, I pointed out how many big publishers came crawlin' back to Steam after trying their own things: EA, Activision, Microsoft. This year, for the first time ever, two Blizzard games released on Steam: Overwatch and Diablo 4.

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[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Steam doesn't allow games to be cheaper elsewhere if they want to also sell on Steam. So the only way Epic can do that is by ... (gasp) exclusives.

Pretty anti-consumer of the store that "keeps on winning" if you ask me.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Steam doesn't allow games to be cheaper elsewhere if they want to also sell on Steam.

How does that work when there is the humble bundle store, and IsThereAnyDeal with a shit ton of stores almost always cheaper than Steam?

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don't they sell Steam keys? Maybe the rules are different in this case.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

They do but some sell direct downloads along with Steam Keys.

[–] kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 10 months ago

That seems to be incorrect, and quite possibly originating from Tim Sweeney.

The only thing I found is that steam keys, which (as a publisher/developer) you get from steam without paying, cannot be sold for cheaper off-steam. The reason for that is obvious, since steam doesn't get their cut on keys, but they still have to provide the support and infrastructure for those users.

If you have a source on that claim though, I'd love to see it - I tried finding anything else on it once and failed.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

So the only way Epic can do that is by … (gasp) exclusives.

Even if your initial premise was correct (the comment from KubeRoot suggests it's not), you claim that only Epic exsclusives were a way around that is obviously BS. The most obvious way around Steam would be to sell everywhere except Steam, so EGS, Microsoft Store, GOG, EA Origin, Uplay,... and whatever else is out there.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world -2 points 10 months ago

Yeah but while they're not allowed to be on sale within X time of launch, I've seen games be part of variable discount bundles or run coupon systems before. Clearly Steam isn't investing infinite resources into tracking this, and probably doesn't actually care for anything but AAA games.

That is assuming the language in the contract even includes such coupon or bundle schemes.